Software engineering involves a blend of non-technical as well as technical issues that often have to be taken into account in the design of empirical studies. In particular, the behavior of people is an integral part of software development and maintenance. This aspect of our subject presents complexities and challenges for the empirical researcher. In many other disciplines, qualitative research methods have been developed and are commonly used to handle the complexity of issues involving people performing tasks in their workplace. This chapter presents several qualitative methods for data collection and analysis and describes them in terms of how they might be incorporated into empirical studies of software engineering, in particular how they might be combined with quantitative methods. To illustrate this use of qualitative methods, examples from real software engineering studies are used throughout.
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Seaman, C.B. (2008). Qualitative Methods. In: Shull, F., Singer, J., Sjøberg, D.I.K. (eds) Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-044-5_2
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